April 4, 2012 4:32pm EDTApril 4, 2012 3:05pm EDTWhen Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard dated Carl Edwards, they were one of the most high-profile couples in sports. Now, Beard is slamming Edwards in her new memoir.

Bob Pockrass

Published on Apr. 4, 2012

Apr. 4, 2012

When Olympic swimmer Amanda Beard and NASCAR star Carl Edwards dated for nearly a year from 2005-2006, they were one of the most high-profile couples in sports.

But the Olympic gold medalist says she still feels jilted by the Roush Fenway Racing driver.

In her memoir, “In the Water They Can’t See You Cry,” Beard describes Edwards as self-absorbed, insanely jealous and controlling.

The 349-page book, which was released Tuesday, features 16 pages on Beard’s relationship with Edwards, who has 19 career Sprint Cup victories and finished second to Tony Stewart in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup last year.

Beard writes about her attraction to Edwards and what eventually led to their breakup.

She says in the book that Edwards was “adamant that his way was the only right one,” and that the relationship revolved around Edwards, who is two years older than Beard.

“He never asked me what I might like to do, because he only wanted to be on Carl time,” she wrote. “He couldn’t imagine any other kind of time.”

Edwards, who was 26 when he dated Beard, married Dr. Kate Downey in 2009. They have two children.

With the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series off this week, Edwards is on vacation and was unavailable for comment, a Roush Fenway Racing spokesman said Wednesday.

Beard wrote in the book that she has cut ties with Edwards “severely and permanently.” She says she at first was enamored with the NASCAR lifestyle but that the excitement quickly waned.

She described having a beer with other drivers’ wives and girlfriends in the driver motorhome lot at the track.

“Their entire existence revolved around their significant others,” she wrote. “Three beers and a thousand predictions later, I wanted to scream, Don’t you guys have lives? They were very sweet, but I didn’t have anything in common with the rest of the women.”

Beard said her relationship with Edwards deteriorated because of a lack of communication and jealousy.

She said that Edwards didn’t want her to see male friends or associate with other NASCAR drivers. He also asked her to stop posing in sexy swimsuits for men’s magazines. Beard posed for Maxim, FHM and Sports Illustrated prior to dating Edwards.

Beard said that she told Edwards once that she had used cocaine and that he was disgusted by her admission and told her he wouldn’t date anyone who uses drugs. She said Edwards “didn’t even want me to have a glass of wine.”

“In that moment I decided that I wasn’t going to tell him anything more about myself and I never did,” she wrote. “It was easy since he never asked.”

She said their lack of communication led to their breakup.

“I was slightly bummed about Carl and the end of our year-long romance,” she wrote. “Slightly. Mostly, I was relieved—and energized.”

After her breakup with Edwards, Beard married photographer Sacha Brown and returned to competitive swimming.

Ironically, she says she got her motivation to compete again from watching veteran NASCAR drivers Dale Jarrett and Mark Martin win races in 2005.

“The image of Dale and Mark, two middle-aged, gray-haired men still enjoying the thrill of victory changed my thinking,” she wrote. “They were on the same grueling forty-eight-weekend race schedule as the young drivers. … All of a sudden competitive swimming no longer felt like a burden but an opportunity.”